“Fragments” Is Filled with Want, Traverses through Heartbreak https://ift.tt/2DJTroz
Mia Arias Tsang’s debut collection, Fragments of Wasted Devotion is a beautiful ode to queer heartbreak, vulnerability, and human relationships. Using flash nonfiction and poetic vignettes, Tsang offers a delicate look into what it means to be a storyteller living the human experience of love and its pains. From settings of university classes to the Venice Beach shores, the reader witnesses honest relationships and love stories within the life of a soul yearning for care. This sentiment is echoed perfectly in the line: “I have never chosen wrong, because I’ve always chosen love” from “Present Tense – Yumi Zouma.”
Tsang brings the reader along on a journey through her own emotional turmoil of searching and yearning. Accompanied by original artwork from Georgia-based artist Levi Wells, an added dimension of visual storytelling is woven into the fabric of Tsang’s heart-on-a- sleeve narrative. These illustrations both complement the prose and provide a tale of their own, often with small details that powerfully contribute to the intimate, raw emotional depth of this collection.
Fragments of Wasted Devotion offers an unflinchingly vivid glimpse into affection, heartbreak, and humanity. It is much appreciated that it is also a look into queer love, a topic that deserves more spotlight. Tsang shows the complexity of relationships — some intense, some brief, all filled with yearning and longing. This collection leads the reader down a path which some might find triggering, as there is no resolute ending. Instead, much like in life, the author attempts to go on while carrying their torch of openness, hope, and affection.
Thematically, Tsang focuses on the struggles of finding love, the complexities of queer relationships, and the pain of yearning. These themes are carried throughout the entirety of the collection, giving the reader a raw and authentic sense of the author’s narrative and feelings on this book’s subject matter. The collection includes many lines that could stick with the reader: “I wouldn’t be a vessel for his body but he still hollowed me out,” from “Temperature Check”; and “Your fingers curve into me, scoop out my desire like pomegranate seeds,” from “Melatonin Dreams”. Tsang has wonderful use of language and metaphor, melding together honest trains of thought and poetic emotion reminiscent of Ocean Vuong.
The structure of Tsang’s collection is fragmented. The reader gets bits and pieces of these stories. Some narratives are very detailed, focused on almost daily progressions of a relationship, while others span months, giving a few instances of standout moments that made the connection noteworthy. The author also includes, in her own words, an “honest, very gay” album reaction written during the beginning of Covid. The fragmented nature of this book fits its theme perfectly, matching the feelings of splintered relationships. Also, a nod to the title, the level of devotion that Tsang demonstrates in each piece is utterly clear. She exhibits not just love of her partner but a devotion to the act of loving. It becomes clear that she pines for the level of devotion that she wholeheartedly carries into every connection.
Fragments of Wasted Devotion is a sincere debut collection that dives deep into queer love and navigating the sometimes-treacherous depths of human emotion. Tsang writes with the same passion that she seemingly brings to her relationships, putting forward a narrative filled with want and traversing through heartbreak. It is easy to feel the genuineness that the author brings to her endeavors both in love and general life. This collection expresses the complexities of love and the ever-profound search for it. Tsang is a master of penning authentic human emotion and conveying all that it means to be wanted.
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